Friday, December 5, 2014

Today's Teamster News 12.05.14

Teamster News
First Student School Bus Workers Vote To Join Teamsters Local 653  teamster.org   ...School bus workers at the Abington, Mass., First Student yard have voted overwhelmingly, 38-8, in favor of representation by Teamsters Local 653 in South Easton, Mass. The group of 60 drivers and monitors transport children in the Rockland, Holbrook and Weymouth school districts...
New Yorkers Swamp City Council Members With Phone Calls, Opposing Bill de Blasio’s Ban On Horse Carriages  New York Daily News   ...Angered by Mayor de Blasio’s drive to ban horse-drawn carriages, New Yorkers fought back Tuesday with their fingertips — swamping City Council members with phone calls urging them to oppose the mayor’s plan...
LA schools reach tentative agreement with supervisor staff union; teacher negotiations ongoing  Associated Press   ...LAUSD and Teamsters Local 572 announced agreements on job protections, food service practices and payment cycles Wednesday. The two sides had previously reached an agreement on salary...
Union workers turn the heat up in fight over oil terminal in the Bronx  New York Daily News   ...Dozens of union workers at a Bronx heating oil supply facility braved freezing rain Wednesday to fight for their jobs and protest the transfer of their facility...
College Scholarships Available To Sons and Daughters of Teamster Members  teamster.org   ...College scholarships, ranging in award amount between $1,000 and $10,000, are available to the sons, daughters or financially-dependent grandchildren of Teamster members through the James R. Hoffa Memorial Scholarship Fund...
Trade
Obama Claims that Economic Reality Will Make It Hard to Get Political Support for His Trade Deals  Center for Economic Policy and Research   ... It's not clear why President Obama would be surprised that most of the public opposes trade deals that are likely to redistribute more income upward...
US To Determine Whether Child Labour Is Used In Indian Carpets  Economic Times   ...The US has proposed to determine whether Indian carpets are produced by forced or indentured child labour, even as it added cotton and sugarcane to the already existing child labour produced list from India...
State Battles
Wisconsin Senate to quickly take up right-to-work legislation  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   ...Nearly four years after mostly eliminating collective bargaining for public workers, Republicans are considering putting limits on most private-sector unions while giving an unprecedented exemption to the labor groups that support them politically...
After Republican Wins, Right To Work Bills On The Agenda  Washington Post   ...Republicans in at least five states — Wisconsin, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Ohio and Missouri — have introduced or plan to introduce versions of the law in legislative sessions that will begin in January. Legislators in Colorado, Kentucky, Montana and Pennsylvania are all likely to push similar laws, though union-friendly Democratic governors in each state will act as firewalls...
War on Workers
Minimum wage fight hits the streets of nearly 200 U.S. cities  Reuters   ...Thousands of U.S. fast-food workers and supporters marched in nearly 200 cities around the United States on Thursday including Chicago and Boston to advocate for a $15 minimum wage and other labor rights...
JPMorgan Rushed to Hire Trader Who Suggested on His Resume That He Knew How to Game Electric Markets  Wall Street on Parade   ...“There’s two things that I find incredible about this. First, that anyone would advertise in a resume that they know about a flaw in the system — signaling that they’re ready and willing to exploit that flaw. And, second, that somebody would hire the person sending that signal.”...
The Incredible Shrinking Incomes Of Young Americans  The Atlantic   ...In retail, wholesale, leisure, and hospitality—which together employ more than one quarter of this age group—real wages have fallen more than 10 percent since 2007...
Which U.S. Cities Have the Biggest Income Gaps?  Wall Street Journal   ...Fairfield County had the widest inequality of any U.S. metro area in 2009-13, according to newly released Census data...
Unsteady Incomes Keep Millions Behind On Bills  New York Times   ...A more recent national survey by the Federal Reserve, based on 2013 data, suggests the problem has not only persisted as the economy recovers but may even have worsened. More than 30 percent of Americans reported spikes and dips in their incomes. Among that group, 42 percent cited an irregular work schedule; an additional 27 percent blamed a span of joblessness or seasonal work...
Ohio Power Prices Could Spike With U.S. Plan To Cut Power Plant CO2 Emissions  Cleveland Plain Dealer   ...The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio filed a 67-page analysis with the U.S. EPA arguing the federal proposal would spike power prices, hurt industry and destabilize the regional high-voltage grid...
Oil Trains Hide In Plain Sight  Wall Street Journal   ...Finding the locations of oil-filled trains remains difficult, even in states that don’t consider the information top secret. There are no federal or state rules requiring public notice despite several fiery accidents involving oil trains, including one in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, that killed 47 people...
Miscellaneous
The NSA Listened In On Trade Group Talks To Stay Ahead Of Phone Encryption  The Verge   ...By monitoring any new encryption proposals before they were made public, the agency was able to get a head start on finding ways to break the new systems...